News from around the nation.

Trump says he will '100%' carry out Greenland tariffs threat, as EU vows to protect its interests; EV sales are way down, but industry experts remain optimistic; Report: MD metros rely heavily on immigrants for home construction; WI energy bills rise as Trump marks one year in office.

Transcript

The Public News Service Tuesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Trump has vowed to 100 percent follow through on his threat to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose his demand to take control of Greenland.

That from the BBC.

They report European allies have rallied around Greenland's sovereignty.

Denmark's foreign minister emphasized the president cannot threaten his way to ownership of the semi-autonomous territory.

And from ABC News, more than 100 vehicles smashed into each other or slid off Interstate 196 south of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Monday, as snow fueled by the Great Lakes blanketed the state.

Michigan State Police said there were numerous injuries, but no deaths had been reported.

Meantime, last fall, when the Trump administration eliminated tax credits for electric vehicles, EV market tanked 20 percent for used models and 50 percent for new EVs.

But industry analysts say there is still reason to be optimistic.

According to new research from Cox Automotive, the EV market only saw a decline of around 2 percent last year when compared to 2024.

Liz Naiman is director of market insights at Recurrent, an EV data company.

She says used EVs tend to be cheaper and have fewer miles and better tech compared to a used car that runs on gas and there will be a greater supply of them in the near future.

One of the side effects of the Inflation Reduction Act was that a lot of people leased new EVs.

Over a million of those used EVs are going to be hitting the market.

Those are going to be two to three year old cars still under warranty and at super affordable prices.

The Trump administration claimed that the tax credits worth $7,500 for new EVs and $4,500 for used models were an unfair mandate from the Biden era.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This story with original reporting by Tech Crew with Grist.

And as President Trump pushes a goal of negative net migration into the U.S., a new report finds immigrants play an outsized role in home building and remodeling.

The report finds in metro areas with the most home construction and remodeling, immigrants are the main drivers of labor for those projects.

It says in the Washington DC suburbs, immigrants comprise two thirds of construction trades workers.

In the Baltimore metro, that share was far lower, but still at a significant 23 percent.

Reardon Frost with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, which released the report, says immigrants play a major role in the country's workforce at large, but even more so in construction.

Workforce, there are about one in five workers nationally of the overall workforce, but there are about one in three construction trades workers.

I'm Zamone Perez.

And on the one year anniversary of President Trump's second term, advocates for clean energy and the environment are calling out the administration for failed promises to cut energy costs.

David Keeve with the Environmental Defense Fund says, in Wisconsin, at least three utilities have asked for and got rate increases in the last year.

Utilities have requested rate increases of as much as 27 percent.

This could lead to bills going up by as much as $300 per year for Wisconsin families.

One of the latest polls shows Americans have real concerns utility bills, among other rising expenses.

This is Public News Service.

A new report on racial equity shows signs of a recession among black Americans and changes to workforce policy, threatening economic gains.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies annual State of the Dream 2026 report finds black unemployment at over 7 percent with large swings in youth unemployment month to month.

Though study coauthor Kayla Elliott says Biden era legislation was responsible for new job training programs in North Carolina.

We saw great collaboration in North Carolina around these new opportunities in clean climate jobs and clean energy and around semiconductor production and around increasing these new short-term programs to get folks into jobs with good wages.

The report found workforce policy changes in 2025 brought increasing support for apprenticeships, but programs that advance black workforce participation were cut.

Brett Peveto reporting.

Next to Indiana where emergency rooms are seeing more young kids sick with the flu, more than one in 10 children arriving at ER statewide are there because of flu symptoms.

More from our Joey Lurie.

Children four and younger account for the largest share of those visits.

In Marion County, nearly 13 percent of children have needed emergency care.

The statewide rate is even higher.

At an indoor playground in Indianapolis, staff now clean surfaces more often and rotate toys to reduce the spread of illness. the inapparent Kelly Delp says vaccinations make her more comfortable letting her kids play in shared spaces.

We've had a few bouts of this and that so we try to you like stay home if we're sick doing whatever we can to kind of be responsible members of the community.

The surge comes during the nation's second worst flu season in the past 15 years with an estimated 15 million cases nationwide.

Health officials say Indiana remains in the high to very high range for respiratory illness.

This story was produced with original reporting from Tim Spears for Wish TV.

Finally, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission is advancing a plan to reduce a protective no fishing buffer for the industrial manhattan or pogey fishery from a half mile to a quarter mile off the coast.

The move is intended to provide economic benefits for fishermen and limit fish spills.

Captain Keith Herc Bergeron, a charter guide from Grand Isle says the industry's push to fish in shallower water is a sign of trouble and will lead to devastating bycatch.

Last year they killed 75,000 bull reds.

And one bull red lays one million eggs.

There's probably more.

So you wiping out 75 million redfish, if you wanna really wanna count it like that.

It's unbelievable.

The commission is accepting public comment on the proposed rollback until the end of the week.

Bycatch refers to the unintentional capture of marine life when fishing.

After that, the commission can still amend the plan and the state legislature can also review and potentially reject it through oversight committees.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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